Tuesday Briefing

A Houthi missile hit a U.S.-owned ship

An anti-ship ballistic missile fired by Houthi fighters struck the Gibraltar Eagle, a U.S.-owned cargo vessel, off the coast of Yemen yesterday. The ship and its crew, which had been headed toward the Suez Canal, were not seriously harmed, according to the U.S. military’s Central Command. The ship turned around to leave the area.

The Houthis, an Iranian-backed militia, have claimed that they are acting in response to the Israeli military response in the Gaza Strip. Their attacks have disrupted a vital trade route to and from the Suez Canal and prompted U.S.-led airstrikes last week. The group considers “all American and British ships” to be enemy targets, a Houthi spokesman said, and he warned that its response “is coming.”

The strike came a day after the U.S. said it had shot down a missile that Houthi fighters fired at one of its Navy ships in the Red Sea. Senior U.S. military officials are bracing for much larger Houthi retaliatory attacks and are preparing a set of escalating military responses should President Biden order more strikes.

In other news from the war:

• Hamas said that two Israeli hostages had been killed in Israeli airstrikes and released images that appeared to show their bodies. The Israeli military cast doubt on the claim.

• A group of volunteers was among the first people to reach the victims of the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7. The trauma of what they witnessed may last a lifetime.

• Two Palestinian men in stolen cars ran over Israelis in a suburb of Tel Aviv yesterday, the Israeli police said. One person was killed and 17 others were injured, officials said.

The race for second place in Iowa

Donald Trump won the Iowa caucuses yesterday, the first step in his bid to reclaim the Republican nomination for the third consecutive presidential election. Read our recap.